Travelers to Vegas

Travelers to Vegas

LAS VEGAS

Airport officials say 3.8 million travelers flew into and out of Las Vegas in October, more than the same month a year ago.

Officials with McCarran International Airport said last week that the number of travelers was up 3.4 percent compared with October 2013.

Southwest Airlines ferried the most passengers during the month followed by United, Delta, American and Spirit airlines.

Travelers flying internationally — about 322,000 — account for nearly 9 percent of all of October’s passengers. That’s 21 percent more international passengers than there were last October.

Gallery to close temporarily

DAYTON

Construction on a new building at the Air Force museum in southwest Ohio will force temporary closure of the museum’s Missile and Space Gallery.

The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton says the gallery will be closed for about five months beginning Dec. 8.

Some exterior wall panels of the gallery are being removed to form new entrances for the new building.

The museum’s fourth building is scheduled to open to the public in spring 2016. It will be the new home of the museum’s presidential aircraft, research and development, space and global reach exhibits.

Some missile and space exhibits including the Apollo 15 command module still will be accessible during the closure, and the museum also offers a virtual, 3-D tour.

Port, cruise line reach 4-year deal

NEW ORLEANS

Port of New Orleans president and CEO Gary LaGrange says Norwegian Cruise Line will keep at least one cruise ship sailing from New Orleans for the next four to seven years.

New Orleans CityBusiness reports that the port and Miami-based cruise line signed a contract last week, days before a new 2,340-passenger ship was to arrive. It can carry 322 more passengers than the Norwegian Dawn, the line’s previous New Orleans-based ship.

A three-year agreement expired Oct. 31.

Norwegian has homeported cruise ships in New Orleans since 2003 for seasonal western Caribbean cruises.

Royal Caribbean International said in June that it will leave when its contract ends in April.

In July, the port and Carnival Cruise Lines reached a five-year contract to keep two ships in New Orleans year-round.

Geography quiz

Q. Which country is not crossed by the Equator: Gabon, Guatemala or Indonesia?

A. Guatemala. Its most southerly point is at about 14 degrees north latitude.

Combined dispatches